A Team Redeemed

June 23, 2002|By MARK MIRKO

Coming into tonight's game against the Red Sox, the downtrodden Indians, who lost their third game of the season 55-4, moped around the dugout calling themselves losers. And early in tonight's contest, it looks as if the team is going to put another game in the loss column. But before the game is half over, and with the score 5-0 against them, Ryan Beach of the Indians does something the team's head coach Mark Drake says may be a AAA Little League first: he hits an out-of-the-park home run.

So while the future, for most us, is unpredictable, tonight's passionate chants rising from a dugout in Simsbury from 13 Little Leaguers on a 0-10 team provide convincing evidence that the Indians are in control, ``We are going to win,'' they yell, ``We are going to win.''

And win they do. They win while Jane Green, mother of Indians pitcher Adam Green, sits with her hands clasped to her face and the setting sun behind her, exhibiting the full range of human emotions during the last inning. They win while Wendy Hill, mother of Carter Hill, who catches the last out of the game to seal the victory, wipes tears from her eyes.

Drake runs onto the field to celebrate with his team, and then to make sure each player goes over to the Red Sox to thank them for a game well played.

``I don't remember hitting a lot of home runs, but I sure remember that first one.'' -- Mark McGwire on his first home run as a 10-year-old Little Leaguer in California